The Game

by Kira Blakely

  “So, you’re the gang then?” I blurted out. The three men were eyeing me up, studying me closely, including Casper.

  “The gang? I don’t know if we would call ourselves that,” Nash said, breaking into laughter. It made me blush a brighter red.

  “We’ve been friends a long time, yes, if that is what you’re asking,” Vincent said, turning his dangerously dark eyes toward me. I looked away from him, embarrassed. Casper suddenly took a step in my direction and placed a hand on my back. It sent goose bumps all over my skin.

  “I didn’t think Casper had any friends,” I managed to say, gulping down my growing embarrassment. I hoped that they would all blame my bright red face on the hour of dancing.

  My comment made the men laugh, including Casper. And by this time, I was beginning to feel claustrophobic. My mind was still reeling from not knowing why Casper was introducing me to his friends.

  “Seems like she’s sized you up pretty well,” Nash said, and Casper shook his head.

  “There have been times when he’s come very close to not having any friends, but we’ve always rallied back to him. Boyhood pacts,” Vincent said, taking a slow sip of his drink.

  I smiled at him and then turned to Casper with a purposeful look. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to use the ladies’ room,” I said, gently prying myself away.

  “Of course,” Casper said to me with a smile. I nodded my head at the other two men and took brisk steps away from them. I needed to put some distance between me and them, especially Casper. It was all too overwhelming. My heart was beating out of my chest, but I surprisingly had a smile on my face that I couldn’t hide.

  It was late now. The sky darkened to a deep purple hue, and the sun was beginning to set in the horizon. I noticed the bathrooms were at the back, and I walked toward them like I was on a mission. When I first got into Casper’s private jet, I hadn’t known what to expect. A fun party and being introduced to his childhood friends weren’t any of the expectations I had.

  I didn’t know what more I could possibly want or expect from this night.

  I needed a couple of minutes to clear my mind, and I walked into the women’s room with my sandals flapping against the tiled floor. The place was empty, which was a relief, because I intended on locking myself up in one of the stalls and having a good long think about what was going on. I wasn’t going to let Casper change my life forever. Hopefully, this was just going to be a whirlwind exotic vacation.

  ***

  I couldn’t be sure how long I was in the restroom, but it couldn’t have been very long because when I returned to the main party area, I spotted Casper still with his two friends, standing in a huddle in the corner.

  I wasn’t sure what made me take the back route toward them instead of walking straight in everyone’s view. It was very unlike me to try and eavesdrop on their conversation, but nothing about my relationship with Casper was anything like what I had done before. So, I just went with the flow.

  This back route was dark, with no lights and hidden out of view with a jungle of plants and trees. The music from the party had died into a mellow sound in the background as I approached them, making sure that they didn’t notice my shadowy, looming figure crouching and making my way toward them. I knew what I was doing was wrong, unnecessary, and something that would be very embarrassing if I was caught, but I was filled with sudden courage somehow and was on a mission to eavesdrop on this conversation.

  I stopped in my tracks and crouched down when I heard Nash’s unmistakably confident voice.

  “You plucked her out of a protest?” he said, pricking my ears with his words. They were discussing me! I bit down on my lip.

  “I didn’t pluck her out exactly. I was down there and saw her getting elbowed by one of her pals. She was basically on the ground, passed out and bleeding out of her nose,” Casper said, followed by a loud laugh from all three of them.

  I took in a deep breath and licked my lips. Where was this going to go?

  “So, what is she doing here then, Casper?” Vincent asked.

  Even over the music in the background, I heard Casper take in a deep breath. My ears were pricked. Vincent had just asked Casper the same question that I had. Was he going to give his friend a straight answer?

  “She is the wildest and most beautiful creature I have ever met in my life. I had to see her again, and this was the only way I could think of,” Casper said, causing my heart to skip a beat. I wanted to scream out, go running out of the bushes and into Casper’s arms. I didn’t know what he meant by that exactly, but in that moment, it was enough for me.

  Then I saw a woman approaching the group, taking quick, knowing steps toward them, and I crouched down further.

  “Casper, this is a great party! Hello, boys.” Her voice was loud like she was drunk, but she sounded sophisticated and wealthy. Through the leaves, I saw her more clearly now. She was a beautiful blonde – tall and full figured. She was in an animal-printed chiffon dress that was translucent enough for her red bra to be visible. Rubies glimmered from her ears and on her fingers. The back of her dress was entirely missing, so she was bare until just an inch above her butt, I saw Casper’s gaze wander there and back up at her face.

  My blood boiled instantly. How could he do that just a minute after what I just heard him say to his friends about me?

  “Surprised to see you here, Samantha,” Nash said, raising his glass to her.

  She was holding a glass of champagne, which she raised to him with a twinkle in her clear blue eyes. Then she turned to Casper again, her wide smile displaying a bright white set of teeth. It was evident who she had her sights set on.

  “I wouldn’t miss a Casper Argent party for the world,” she said, and swayed toward him, knocking their shoulders together and then breaking into a fit of giggles.

  “I think we should go check out the bar again, Nash,” Vincent said, dragging his friend away by the arm. The friends were leaving Casper alone with this Samantha woman, and I clenched my fists and gritted my teeth. What was happening? Why was Casper not pushing this woman away?

  “Casper, I’ve been waiting for your phone call,” the woman said, turning to him the moment the other two left. She wasn’t going to waste any time. Casper had that deadly smile on his face, the one that usually made me blush painfully, but now made my blood boil with rage.

  “I was busy, Sam. You know my schedule. But you’re here now, and so am I,” he said, warmly accepting the arm that she slipped into his. She was drawing herself close to him. She took a large gulp of her champagne and nodded her head.

  “Indeed, we are. Fancy me being in Hawaii just when you throw a party,” she said, as I bit down on my lip harder. I didn’t know how much longer I would be able to endure overhearing this conversation. It was driving me nuts.

  “Something tells me that this is more than just an innocent coincidence,” Casper said lightheartedly and followed the woman’s every movement with his cool gray eyes. She was still hanging from his arm, swaying gently to the music, sipping her champagne. They were both blissfully unaware that I was there behind them in the dark, clearly overhearing everything that was being said. I was now a witness to the real Casper Argent, the one that he clearly kept hidden away from his friends, too.

  “I saw you dancing earlier with some girl I didn’t recognize. A girl in an ugly silk dress?” she said, and she was giggling again. “But how about we set the floor on fire now? Just like the old times?” she said, positioning her body out of his arms and in front of him now.

  Before I could hear what Casper replied to that, I was rushing toward them, ignorant of the state of my unruly auburn curls or the leaves in them after the time I had spent in the bushes.

  Chapter 13

  They didn’t notice me approaching at first until Casper looked up and saw me walking hotly in their direction. He had been smiling widely at the woman a second before that, but when he saw me, that expression dropped from his face. His eyes instantly narrowed
and hardened as he calculated the look on my face and the way I was striding toward them. He sensed trouble. The woman saw Casper’s expression change and then followed his gaze, turning around to look at me. Unlike Casper, she still had a smile on her face.

  “Casper!” I said it too loudly, much louder than I had intended to.

  “Lily, you’re back,” he said to me, slightly flustered. I had never seen Casper this uncomfortable before, but he kept his eyes trained on me.

  “What’s going on? Who is this?” The woman turned from me to Casper, and then back to me again. In a sudden rage, I felt my palms itching to simply slap her across her face. My anger was stemming from a very deep and real place. Not only had she insulted my dress, but she was also flirting with Casper, and he was flirting back!

  “Sam, this is my friend, Lily Fitz. Lily, this is another old friend of mine, Samantha Meyers,” Casper corrected himself. He was back to being his old charming self, self-assured and confident.

  “Pleasure,” Samantha said, extending a delicate, pale hand in my direction.

  I pasted a smile on my face. I forced myself to do it, but I didn’t shake her hand.

  “Casper, I want to talk to you,” I said, not quite sure yet what I wanted to say, but I knew I wanted to be alone with him.

  “How do you know this young lady, Casper?” Samantha ignored what I just said and turned to the man we were both lusting after. My heart instantly ached when Casper looked at her and smiled.

  “She’s a friend, Sam,” he said, and placed a hand on her shoulder. My eyes darted to that movement, widening as I felt like I was losing my mind.

  “Casper, can we please talk privately?” I repeated myself, beginning to lose patience. I wasn’t one to make public scenes about private affairs, but I had no choice. I’d had a bit to drink and my temper was flaring.

  “I assure you, you can say whatever you want in front of me. Casper and I have been friends for too long to keep secrets from each other,” Samantha said with a smile and then looked at Casper knowingly, and rolled her eyes. Like I wasn’t even there!

  I could feel my teeth grinding against each other, I couldn’t remember the last time I was this mad. And surprisingly, Casper was completely calm, as if he couldn’t even fathom what I was going through.

  I took in a deep breath and licked my lips as my nostrils flared. “I want to leave. Is there any way I can do that?” I said, trying to make my voice as even as possible.

  Casper cleared his throat, and even though Samantha jerked her head to look at him again, this time he ignored her.

  “The only way you can leave is on my jet, and I’m not ready to go yet, Lily.” He stressed my name like he was explaining something to a naughty child. As if my temper wasn’t wild enough.

  “I want to leave, now, Casper. I think I might just arrange for something else,” I said, clenching my fists. I didn’t know what was making me react in such an absurdly violent way. Why was I picking a fight with him in the middle of a party! What did I think he owed me? It could have been the alcohol, or my feelings for him, or seeing Samantha touch him… I don’t know what it was, but I wanted desperately to get out of there.

  “You can’t do that, Lily. And you definitely can’t fly commercial tonight, not at this hour,” Casper said, finally letting go of Samantha’s shoulder.

  “Why would you want to pay for a flight when you can go back with Casper?” Samantha chipped in.

  I looked at her crossly with my nostrils flared and then turned back to Casper again with a jerk. “Can we leave now, then?” I asked him, crossing my arms over my breasts to further display my disapproval of him and her.

  “Lily, I can’t leave now. It’s my company party. I can’t just up and go right now in the middle of everything. Everyone expects me to stay till the end. I have business to attend to.” Casper was speaking harshly now, like he had lost his patience.

  Samantha started cracking up with laughter in the background, and I’d never felt more embarrassed.

  “I feel like a prisoner here, like I can’t leave when I want to. This is seriously ridiculous,” I said, and turned my face away from them both. Samantha was still laughing and Casper tried to reach for me, but I stepped back.

  “Don’t touch me!” I hissed at him. “Can we go now or not?”

  “Lily, I just told you that I can’t!” This time, he yelled.

  I took a few steps away from him and turned my face toward Samantha. She seemed to be enjoying herself, like she was at some kind of show. She was also delighted that the girl Casper Argent had come to the party with had just managed to piss him off. I hadn’t yet turned to see who else had witnessed this little demonstration of my temper, but I didn’t want to know.

  I turned on my heels and went running as fast as my feet could carry me.

  ***

  All I knew was that I had to get away from there, from him and from that cackling witch. I had tears streaming down my cheeks as I ran in my new black cocktail dress, in my sandals, with my curls blowing behind me. More than anger or vengeance, what I was feeling was embarrassed.

  I managed to escape out through the bushes again, and now I was running in the direction of the sea. When my feet hit the sand, I felt my body sink a bit with my weight, but I kept running. The sound of the lashing sea waves were louder in my ears now, and the sun had entirely set. The water was the color of a navy velvet curtain, matching the sky above. When I looked up, I realized that I had never seen a clearer night sky. Stars twinkled everywhere, and the sight had an instant calming effect on me.

  I took in a deep breath and stopped in my tracks. What was I doing? Where was I running to? What was I running away from? I was running away from Samantha and Casper, but I also felt like I was running away from the person I had turned into at that party.

  Too many emotions, too much had happened to me in the course of a day. This morning, I hadn’t expected to see Casper again, hoping he would just be a part of my memory. Then he turned up at my door, then I was on a four-hour long flight on his private jet, then we were making love, then he was making me come with his tongue, then he was dancing with me at this insane party, then he was telling his friends how I was the wildest, most beautiful girl he had ever met, and then he was accepting the sexual advances of a woman who I didn’t know about, and who he seemed to know intimately.

  That was the confused state of my tired mind by this time. I had no control over my emotions anymore. I was panting from the lack of breath from having run that hard. I doubled over with my hands on my knees, trying to just catch a breath.

  I didn’t even want to imagine what Casper was doing right then, what he was saying, or what Samantha was saying to him. I pictured him laughing about it, about the scene I had just made, his friends pulling his leg for calling me wild just moments ago.

  What was I doing? This wasn’t the Lily Fitz I recognized. I was ashamed of myself and of my behavior. Casper Argent was supposed to be the enemy, the kind of guy I should have stayed away from. And now he was driving me crazy. He was making me do things that I could never have imagined myself doing. What would Marla say if she saw me like this? How let down would my environmentalist friends feel if they found out that I had slept with the man whose company I was supposed to be protesting against?

  What would Marla say? Was Zoe missing her Aunt Lily?

  I was holding my chest as I tried to catch a breath and orient myself again so I could think straight. The moon illuminated the beautiful silver beach around me, and in any other moment, I would have been awestruck by the sheer island beauty, but not this night. Right now, I couldn’t appreciate anything. I couldn’t see the beauty in anything. All I could think about was myself and what a huge mistake I made by even opening the door to Casper. That now, in less than a day, I was falling in love with a man I should have stayed away from since the beginning.

  The gentle crashing sounds of the waves before me had masked the sound of Casper’s footsteps in the sand. When he c
alled out to me, I turned, a little afraid of him.

  He was still some distance away, and I couldn’t see him clearly, but his voice was unmistakable. He was in no rush to catch up, almost as though he was giving me some time to think about what I had just done.

  Even from this distance, his sandy blond hair was a bright golden. He was in his tuxedo and bowtie still, with his hands thrust into the pockets of his black pants.

  He’d rolled up the bottom of his pants and taken off his shoes when he had stepped into the sand, and now the breeze had blown his smart hairstyle to the side, making him even more handsome. As he came closer, I saw his eyes were that deep blue again, almost like the color of the sea around us. His jaws were clenched as he approached me, and his lips were set tightly. His skin looked darker now in the night, but seemed to shine in the moon’s silvery illumination. Casper was like a Greek god walking stealthily down the beach. My stomach did an instant flip. All the thoughts I had been having about all this being a mistake were gone. I was reminded of why I had suddenly gone this crazy.

  It was because of this man and how he made me feel. Because of how handsome and perfect he was. And because when I expected him to be back at the party, laughing about me with his friends, he was walking toward me on a dark deserted beach instead.

  I drew in a deep breath and licked my lips as I watched him. The closer he came to me, the faster my heart beat. I was still angry, I was still embarrassed, but I was also relieved to see that he hadn’t abandoned me completely.

  Chapter 14

  “Lily, what on Earth was all that about?” he asked when he was finally within earshot.

  I shrugged my shoulders and splayed my hands. Even though I was glad that he followed me here, that I wasn’t alone on this deserted, dark beach, I still had my pride. I couldn’t completely give in to him yet.